Members of a community group in Northern Ireland have spoken of their pride in being able to restore a derelict hall back to life for the local village to use.
Glenclare Community Group are based in Glenavy, and have been operating from 2012. After a few years of planning and hard work, they were able to return St Clare's Community Hall back to life to host events and activities for members of the local area.
First opened in the Easter of 1957, the hall had always been an integral part of the community, best known back then for hosting showbands and dances. From around the mid-1980s, however, the hall was used sporadically as it began to fall into disrepair.
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St Clare's then closed in 2010 and lay derelict for two years before the community group were formed and began to take action.
Now, the hall is buzzing once again, being used seven days a week for a wide range of events including social activities, sports, training sessions, and functions including weddings.
Maura Cormican is the CEO of Glenclare Community Group. She grew up a few miles away from the area, and remembers attending events here when she was a teenager.
"The hall originally opened in Easter 1957 and was a parochial hall," she told Belfast Live.
"That Christmas, they had a big bazaar here in the hall, and I was at it. My aunt lived here, but we lived a few miles away. I bought a ballot and won a prize, which turned out to be a live rooster.
"I was mortified walking out of the hall with it flapping away, I was about 15 at the time. But it was a laugh.
"It was the time of the showbands and there were buses coming up to see them here. You couldn't move in it.
"I came here and never learnt to dance because all you had room to do was shuffle! I actually met my husband outside the church across the street, so this place is very special to me."
Paul O'Brien has been involved in the community group in recent years, and moved to the area in the 1980s when he said the hall was "functioning occasionally but there was hardly any usage, it was going damp and falling into disrepair."
After a failed attempt to maintain the hall, it fell further into disrepair until Glenclare Community Group took the reigns in 2012. It was important to the group to restore the community hub, and to have the new hall be completely cross-community.
Maura said: "We decided we would completely renovate the hall. A bomb went off in it during the Troubles so they had closed the main doors off, but we decided we would bring it back to what it was like back in the day.
"It was officially opened in October 2014. We did a lot of the work ourselves to keep costs down, and that's where all our volunteers came in.
"It wasn't always easy, we had tough times. But at the end of it all, I think the hall looks fabulous. I think we did a good job restoring it."
One of the latest additions to the hall is a garden, designed by the son of one of the group's volunteers, Margaret Bradley. Sadly, Matthew passed away after a hit-and-run incident in Liverpool in 2017 when he was just 24-years-old.
An award-winning gardener, Matthew's design was realised just months after his death, and is now a much-loved tribute to him.
Last year, St Clare's Community Hall was used as a base for BBC Northern Ireland's 'St Mungo's', with local people acting as extras and the community group supplying meals to the crews.
They hosted a free screening party in the hall for the local community to come together and see the finished product.
Margaret added: "It was tiring but it was really good fun. It was great to be able to put on a screening for the community and give everyone supper, it was great craic."
Since the hall's renovation, it continues to be used by locals on a regular basis. Before coronavirus, the group measured footfall and found 120,000 people per year attending a wide range of events, with groups such as their friendship club and book club being amongst the most popular.
Paul said: "I would say there's more happening in the hall now than there was when it was first set up. Back then, it tended to just be used for big events like concerts and dances, but now we use it for a wide range of activities."
"It's been a great crossroads in the community, a meeting place," volunteer Dennis added.
"The great thing after all the work was done was to see the hall doing what it was built to do, and that's the most important thing."
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